A few things that have worked for me in the past, or things that I have seen work in the past: 1. Quickly "accept", mentally, that it has failed. If you're the

A few things that have worked for me in the past, or things that I have seen work in the past: 1. Quickly "accept", mentally, that it has failed. If you're the person who wrote the code, there is a chance you are surprised that it could fail so you switch to debug mode. Don't do that, just move on. 2. Keep talking. The show becomes more awkward when there is a large uncomfortable silence. If your demo has a presentation alongside it, then restart your app/whatever and quickly move on to your next talking point. 3. If your audience is technically inclined, sometimes it's fun to just quickly describe what went wrong. It could help you connect with your audience better. 4. Continue with everything else that can still work, and don't bring up what failed! Unless something critical went down, there's a good chance the rest of your system will work. The demo might not be as impressive as you wanted, but it's always better than nothing. Oh and don't retry the same feature again. Seeing it fail twice is worse than seeing it fail once, unless you know that it works on even-numbered runs or something :) 5. Carry a backup of your demo if you can, and switch to that quickly. It always helps to have someone else along who can help you switch quickly if need be. This may not be cost-effective or viable, but it's the best option.